6A INDIVIDUALISM AND COMMUNITY

Westerners! Look and learn. You have been raised in a strict diet of individualism. It was martin Luther, the Protestant reformer who started it. He emphasized that each person for himself must have faith in God. He said that the priests cannot decide what the Bible teaches and tell you, and if you have other insights into scripture, they cannot tell you that you are not going against the teachings of the church.

You must have faith in God alone. You must be taught by scripture alone, You must do what you know is right and you must not do what you know is wrong, even if the priest tells you. All of this is right, but is part of scripture. It is not the whole.

Luther was a great man of God. He changed the whole of European civilization. He bought revival to the church and because of him the moral and spiritual values of Northern European countries were strengthened. Northern Europe then underwent immense technological advancement and unbelievable mushrooming of prosperity.

But Luther was a reactionary. This means that he over emphasized some things in order to bring balance to another thing that was not in balance. The catholic church emphasized community. They emphasized that the church was the axle of the wheel by which the whole culture ran. The church was the center of social functions such s weddings and funerals. The church was the place where children were baptized and he church was the place where everyone gathered to worship God.

The priest was the man who influenced the community through his preaching and private counselling. So the priest was also the guardian of the community. If there was someone who came into the community who was there to exploit the community, the priest could warn people from the pulpit. Through church tithes, he collected a lot of money. This money was put to use feeding the poor and helping widows.

Sounds good. So how come all this huloobalaaah / ballyhooo about the catholic church? The problem was the papacy was infiltrated by wealthy people who used the church for financial gain and to accumulate power to themselves. Because of this the middle ages  was called the dark ages.

It was a crazy era. The popes had concubines and one pope was a woman who gave birth in the street. Naturally she ceased  being pope! It was the era where there were two popes. One in France and one in Italy. Both claimed to be papa, the [one and only]  inspired word of God to the church. A crazy era.

A corrupt era. An era where the popes accumulated enormous wealth for their families  An era where the popes were warriors, going into battle and killing people and forcing them to hand over land and money and whatever. And when people protested? ……. they were the sons of Satan criticizing the church …. and they must die by burning at the stake! The terrible death these victims went through terrified the community so they made sure they obeyed the pope and his priests.

So from being loving shepherds, concerned guardians of all the communities of Europe and Africa, corruption turned the church around to being something that people obeyed out of dread. They dared not disobey the church. And that is what people began to protest about. …. and they were burned at the stake and whole communities were butchered.

But when Luther nailed his 91 theses to the church door, protesting the evils within the catholic church, the papacy was weak, and the printing press had been invented and protestant printers printed Luther’s books and people bought them. They were best sellers and soon a protestant reformation was catching fire throughout Europe.

Luther reacted against the cultural stranglehold the corrupt catholic church had on the people. One guy was even trying to raise money for the Papacy  and he was given permission to sell forgiveness of sins for money [Simony]. Sinners were more than willing to part with cash so that they could sin more. It was a crazy era!

So Luther emphasized individuality. You must read scripture for yourself [true]. You must have a personal faith in Jesus [true]. You must be free to worship at any church that feeds you spiritually, and avoid corrupt churches like the Catholic church of the day [True]. But he did not emphasize community. Christians are in a community called the church. Christians are in a community of people who live around them. Christians are in a community of people at work. Christians must always live in harmony with the communities around them- that is if it is possible.

A Christian is like a lizard. A lizard is soft. It has a soft skin, soft bones and a soft mouth. If you cut off a leg, it will not make a loud noise. If it bites you with all of its strength it does not hurt…… but it is found in Kings palaces. Now a snake which is feared, is not found in kings palaces.

GOOD NEWS BIBLE Pro 30:28  Lizards: you can hold one in your hand, but you can find them in palaces.

if you read Matthew 5, Jesus is not only telling the Jews to live with godly character [1-9]. He is telling them how to live harmoniously in a culture that was hostile to them. In the words of proverbs, he was telling them to live like lizards. Be soft, be gentle [1-9], do not fight back when persecuted [10-12], settle disputes quicky [23-26], do not make a lot  of protests when you are abused [like carrying luggage for the Romans] [38-48].

But the Jews did not listen so they started a war with the abusive Romans and were massacred for it. …… and lost their temple …. and were thrown out of their own land. Eventually the Romans wrote a law that if any soldier found a Jew in Israel  he was to execute him on the spot without a trial- all because they failed to obey the community harmony wisdom of Jesus.

In 1996 I attempted to explain to the Commercial farmers union directors that because of the way they were arrogant towards the rural community around them, and the government, and because they were abusive towards their own labour, President Mugabe was going to remove them from the land. They were more like mongooses than lizards. Mongooses go, lizards stay. The arrogant, abusive farmers were ejected forcefully from the land.  read about it in [www.blomefieldprophecies.wordpress.com]